Name: Meret SilverstreamAge: 19Height: 5' 6"Weight: 145 lbPhysical Description: Meret is fit yet has budding curves that hint that, when completely developed, she will have curves in all the right places. Her hair is a glossy wave of auburn that reached down to her waist. Her eyes are chocolate brown and are constantly filled with the fire of her determination. Character Background: Meret grew up comfortably as the daughter of the Marquis Brandon and Marquise Danielle of The Last Bastion. Her parents oversaw the upkeep of their long and narrow county, as well as the security of the rest of the country. Their castle, Wildmount, straddles the boundary between The Wild and the rest Meriden.
As daughter of the Marquis and Marquise Meret was privileged as a child. She was always well fed and wanted for nothing but her freedom. She was well educated and was particularly fond of anything to do with geography and history. Despite her comfortable upbringing she longed for the freedom that people of lesser ranks were able to enjoy. She wanted to be able to ride along the countryside on her horse, the wind rushing through her unbound hair, with no place to go or people to report to. In her personal time she went to the upper battlements of the Wildmount and fired stolen arrows from her contraband bow into the trees far below. It was the only place she really felt herself.
Due to her un-ladylike desire to be free everyone viewed her as a spoiled spark. She was bright, she stood out, but she was quite alone. She had friends amongst the other girls of the court, but none that she could truly trust or relate to. They were fun to be around, but there was nothing more to it than that. A lot of the young men of the court viewed her warily, her famous determination and stubbornness making all but the most daring turn their heads. As it was, Meret had not really dallied with any of the boys. There were some that she liked, to be sure, but they were all so full of courtly graces that she was surprised they didn't explode in a flurry of feathers, silk, and rainbow masks.

Meret sighed as she fell, exhausted, into a white silk covered chair. The strains of the harp and lute floated through the air accompanied by the most heavenly voice that The Last Bastion had to offer. The sun was simmering above the horizon to the west and tinting the world around with marvellous hues of yellow, burnt orange and fuchsia.

Meret looked around, her smooth auburn hair pulled up into a bun, with several loose tendrils curled around her face prettily. She should be pleased, she knew that, after all this was her birthday party. However, considering that it was supposed to be held in her honour, there was little there to humour her. It was a pretty day to be sure, but if it were up to her she’d rather spend it on her faithful mare Lightning with her hair flowing in the wind. The pins that held her bun in place stuck into her scalp painfully and she slipped a creamy skinned finger under her hair, hoping to dislodge the little blighter.

“I hope you’re enjoying yourself Darling, your Mother has put on a real show for your party this year.” Said her father, the Marquis Brandon of The Last Bastion. He sat down on a chair beside her and patted her knee over the green velvet of her dress.

“What is there to not enjoy?” Meret said exasperatedly. Her father shot her a look of warning but quickly returned his attention to the revellers on the nearby parquetry dance floor that had been moved to the courtyard for her benefit.

“I know that you don’t like this sort of thing Meret, but you are getting older now and it is time that you begun to think about-” The same old lecture began in the tired tone she had become accustomed to.

That is, until a scream pierced through the evening and turned Meret’s blood to curdled milk.

The music was the first thing to stop, and before long it was replaced by the macabre sounds of terrified screams and monstrous roars. The next thing that Meret noticed was that the dancers were out of step, a mad dash for safety replaced the swift prances of the fox trot.

“Lady Meret, we must go.” Hamish, her Father’s personal guard, sounded as though he was speaking through layers of compressed cotton. His voice was thick and clumsy to her stunned ears and his actions seemed out of time, disjointed, puppet like.

He tried to talk to her again but her brows furrowed in confusion. What was he talking about?

Then, she saw the first Bear.

The Bear was three times taller than any other she’d seen before and at least twice as wide. His long razor like claws were already dripping with a sticky plum sauce. Meret wished for a moment that somebody had told her there was plum sauce; she’d have liked to dip her dinner roll in it. Then, after a moment of being completely dazzled, horror tore through her system and her veins turned to ice. It wasn’t plum sauce; it was blood.

The Bear lumbered towards her with a graceful gait and incredible speed that was at odds with its lumbering appearance. The next thing she knew the world was revolving strangely around her and the wind was knocked out of her lungs. She could smell the pungent freshness of spring grass. There were distant sounds of a struggle and Meret looked up to she Hamish wrestling with the creature.

“HAMISH!” Her voice sounded thick and clumsy to her ears, but he turned.

RUN! She couldn’t hear the word as he screamed it, but she could tell what he meant by the way his lips moved and the desperation in his eyes. When he turned back she heard a blood-curdling roar and saw the Bear bring one massive clawed paw down across Hamish’s throat. A split second later a fountain of blood sprayed from Hamish and covered the Bear’s matted black fur.

That was when reality caught up to Meret.

The sounds and sights of the world came to her in a sudden rush as Hamish felt to the ground like a sack of potatoes. As he fell his body rotated and his head lolled back onto the ground. His previously twinkly blue eyes looked at hers, dead, and Meret’s cry of dismay filled the air.

RUN!

So Meret ran. She ran until her lungs burnt with the effort, until her ribs felt like they were caving in. She ran until her feet felt heavier than lead and her vision blurred with tears. And then she ran even further.

Meret had no idea where she was going until she reached the abandoned tower that overlooked The Last Bastion and the land around it. Instead of climbing up the winding stone staircase the ducked beneath it and fell into a trap door. Below the stone floor were some dark steps that led down to an even darker cellar. Meret didn’t bother checking to see if anyone was there. She didn’t even have the energy to light a torch before she collapsed to the ground and gave in to the pull of exhausted sleep.

~*~

Six weeks had passed since the disastrous events of Meret’s nineteenth birthday party. After falling into a deep black sleep she had awoken and ascended back into the light of day. Meret didn’t know how long she slept for, but by the time she returned to The Last Bastion everyone was dead. The previously beautiful town was splashed with red blood that was drying black in places. Amongst the dead bodies she could see tufts of matted black fur, or some claws that had been dislodged, but there was no sign of the giant Bears that had torn her world to shreds. Before she had left she had the good sense to pack a big bag with supplies, and she went to her old room to find weapons. Even though she knew she should, she couldn’t bear to look at the dead bodies. She had seen a man dressed in crimson and gold robes of velvet on the parquetry dance floor, but he was not her father. Not anymore. He was not her father any more than the woman in the purple silk dress was her mother.

When Meret left The Last Bastion and made for the woods she had been shocked to hear a familiar sound. When she turned she saw a flash of black through the trees. Instantly, her blood turned to ice. However, the flash was accompanied by a braying sound that could only mean one thing. Lightning. He had come up to her and nuzzled her and she had wept then. She climbed onto him, her legs straddling his bare back, and she was thankful for him; her only companion.

It took her half a day to reach the next town on horseback. At first she had seen smoke from the chimneys and had thought that she was in luck. However, but the time she got close enough to discern the state of the town she had realised that the fires were unattended. The blood and cadavers spread before the gates told her that story well enough.

And so it continued… Another six weeks of travel had woven the same tale. Every time she got to a new town it was too late. She had seen more blood in the past month and a half than most seasoned warriors would in their entire life. But, by the time she reached Port Dense, she had acquired a saddle, saddle bags, and a health amount of supplies.

Upon seeing the corpses littering the small fishing town of Port Dense Meret had assumed that it had met the same fate as the others that she had seen before. That was until she heard the growling. This time when she turned, she didn’t see a graceful mare walking towards her. Instead, this time, it was a Bear. It was the creature that had stolen everything she knew, it was the creature that wouldn’t even leave her alone in her nightmares.

The creature assessed her for a moment as she sat on Lightning, frozen. It’s black eyes twinkled with an intelligence not seen in even the canniest creatures.

“RUN!” This time it was her voice that yelled Hamish’s word. She dug her heels into Lightning’s side and the mare turned from the beast and ran. She was true to her name sake; Lightning ran so fast that afternoon that the world blurred around Meret as her mind raced.

She couldn’t go north; she had just come from Gillen and there was no hope there. To the west was Harper Town, The Siege and The Last Bastion- all had fallen victim to the fiendish Bears. To the east was the ocean, and for all her smarts Meret was not a sailor.

“SOUTH!” Meret cried, tugging on Lightning’s reins and looking over her shoulder as the garish creature and three of its kin raced after them, drool flying from their mouths and making them look like giant rabid dogs.

Lightning made for the perfectly straight line of trees in the distance. The wall that led to The Wild. Meret had been told stories of the Wild as a child, and all of the creatures and horrors that lay beyond the perimeter of ancient oak trees. However, when she looked over her shoulder and saw several more Bears joining the pack, even The Wild seemed like a better option.

The Bears were closing in on them with a speed that Meret felt was supernatural. The large oak trees grew taller and taller and eventually blotted out the sun as they approached. In the shadowed light of the Wild Meret turned and saw something strange. The Bears were slowing down. They were roaring to each other as if in conversation. When Lightning dashed between the first two sentinels of the forest the Bears came to a halt all together. Meret pulled the reins firmly and Lightning skidded to a stop.

The bears beady black eyes glared at her across the distance, their dangerous orbs holding a promise of pain and danger. However, with a loud roar from the one at the front, the pack turned and begun to lumber away slowly.
Meret was flabbergasted. What was it about The Wild that the bears were so afraid of?

I woke to the feeling of movement at my side. My eyes opened at a flash, and I looked around, still lying down. I gave sigh of relief, realizing it was just Kay snuggling with me, not some momster or anything like tha. I straightened my back, sitting on my bed, and began stretching my muscles. Wen I was satisfied, I slowly got off the bed, not wanting to awaken my companion.
But no matter how quiet I was, she immediately knew I had awoken. She gave a yawn, and was standing next to me in no time. Right now, she had changed her hair to brown, her eyes to green, and her body to that of a umans. I just couldn't shake off the feeling that she was possibly flirting with me sometimes. She certainly fit it, since whenever she was human she always chose the most beautiful forms.
"What woke you?" she asked me.
"Nothing, I just woke up," I answered, not wanting to tell her she had awoken me. She sighed, and reverted to her true form, that of a sphinx. She now had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, but a slightly humanoid face, a mixture of human and lion. When she was done morphing, I went to the corner where my boy and quiver was, and got ready for the day.
"Listen, I will be back at earliest noon, latest late afternoon. Don't let anything in the house. If you see a human, just capture it for questioning, okay?" I instructed Kay. She nodded, looking bored, and I climbed down the rope ladder to reach the forest floor. I looked back to my home, a tree house, and Kay pulled up the rope ladder. Satisfied, I ran out I to the forest, being careful not to awaken any creatures, whether they be dangerous or not. This forest was called the Wild, after all, for a reason.